The Spicy Post
Some of us here at Garner Grows really love our peppers, especially those of us who start seedlings indoors each year. So naturally we end up with quite a few pepper plants growing. Yours truly (Hi, It’s Layla.) may go overboard with their love of peppers, specifically the hot ones. On top of the nearly 100 pepper plants at Garner Grows, my personal garden is boasting about 130 pepper plants (totally bragging a bit) most of which are not doing half bad. As I hoped, the bounty of peppers has been piling up on my poor crowded countertop. Time to make some hot sauce and clear off that precious counter space!
We slipped on our gloves (don’t make the mistake not to) and got to deseeding. A few hours and a couple hundred peppers later, our hot peppers were ready for the blender. Now let me tell you a little about our blender. This blender was not purchased by me or by my mother, but by my grandmother. Apparently it has fond memories of chocolate shakes for the whole family when my uncle was in college. My uncle is 70..so suffice it to say this blender has seen decades of blended foods. Unfortunately, this hot sauce was its very last. Within two seconds of turning it on, it gave its last whir with a dramatic puff of smoke. Did I mention it was 10pm? Now I am sitting here at 10pm with a non-operational blender full of peppers, vinegar, and crushed pineapple.
This is where I realize how lucky I am to be part of the Garner Grows community. Instead of giving up on finishing the hot sauce, I turned to my friends. Someone I know must have a blender I can borrow. Actually, I can think of a whole handful of people who would let me borrow a blender, and most of them only live a stones throw away. It only took TEN MINUTES for me to find someone willing to help me out in my time of desperate blender needs. Even though it was just a silly late night blender borrowing, it made me realize we really have built a community. When I needed a little help, I knew right away I could ask my friends from Garner Grows for help.
So the day was saved and the hot sauce was finished. I made three levels of heat so everyone who wanted could enjoy even if they didn’t want much heat. One was a creamy low heat Roasted Pepper Sauce, and the other two were both Quick and Easy Blender Hot Sauce at heat levels I deemed “normal person hot” as opposed to the “make you cry” variety that my mother says I make. There was enough to share with everyone so I poured it up in jars (also given to me by a member of GG) and packed it into the cooler for the Saturday morning workday. I think I ended up with 11 jars and 8 sauce cups to share. I am not sure who all ended up with hot sauce, but it all disappeared somewhere! If you missed out make sure to let me know you want some and I will be sure to get you a jar as soon as I get a new blender.
Layla Bonilla
